Volvo

What are the first things that come to mind when you hear the phrase "small car?" Frugal? The Volvo C30, a trim three-door hatchback, was a miserly fuel sipper. Fun to drive? The C30 is nothing if not that. Nimble and easy to pilot through traffic? The C30 shines here, but was also comfortable and quiet on the highway. Inexpensive? We may have a problem, depending on what you consider to be inexpensive. Compared to luxury sedans with sticker prices that break the six-figure mark, the amount listed on the C30's Monroney (that's what the price sticker affixed to the window of every new car and truck is called)

The arrival of a 2015 Volvo XC60 T6 provided the first opportunity to test the Drive-E powertrain technology that Volvo has been promoting. Volvo's approach consists of using smaller, four-cylinder engines to power vehicles that have traditionally used six-cylinder motors. Its goal is to improve fuel economy and decrease emissions without any decline in performance. My wife Paula and I had an XC60 T6 with the more powerful of the two Drive-E motors. T5 models use a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine good for 240 horsepower.

Andre Agassi, the headliner last year, will return to the $1.04 million Volvo International Tennis Tournament in New Haven, officials announced Tuesday. The tournament is scheduled Aug. 12-21 at the Connecticut Tennis Center. Bothered by a wrist injury last year, Agassi has dropped from third in the worldin 1988 to 31st. After surgery in December, he did not play until last month in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he won the Nuveen Championships Feb. 27. Agassi joins No. 7 Andre Medvedev and No. 2 Michael Stich, who already committed to the 56-player field.

Robert J. Alvine, president of Premier Watertown, celebrated the Grand Opening of Premier Subaru Watertown and Volvo of Watertown at a recent ribbon cutting ceremony at the dealerships, located at 795 Straits Turnpike, Route 63, in Watertown, on the former site of Chase Parkway Subaru and Volvo. "We look forward to bringing an exciting new automotive sales and service experience to customers in the Greater Waterbury market", Alvine said. "Both Subaru and Volvo have well-deserved reputations for reliability, safety and craftsmanship," he added.

Robert J. Alvine, president of Premier Watertown, celebrated the Grand Opening of Premier Subaru Watertown and Volvo of Watertown at a recent ribbon cutting ceremony at the dealerships, located at 795 Straits Turnpike, Route 63, in Watertown, on the former site of Chase Parkway Subaru and Volvo. "We look forward to bringing an exciting new automotive sales and service experience to customers in the Greater Waterbury market", Alvine said. "Both Subaru and Volvo have well-deserved reputations for reliability, safety and craftsmanship," he added.

Volvo tried to engineer the comfort it usually offers in its sedans into the XC90 sport utility, and it has succeeded. This SUV is happiest on the open road, and it handles like a car that rises above the traffic, but not too high. I drove from Lake Placid, N.Y., to Hartford in the better part of a morning, and felt as if I had driven only as far as my former workaday commute of 46 miles. There was no strain and no muscle tightness from that 250 or so miles of steady driving.

Volvo has always been known to stick to the tried and true, and the 2006 XC90 wagon is no exception. The XC90's V-8 engine is now mated with an all-wheel-drive system that is computer-controlled, and it provides a seamless sequence for getting power to all wheels. The V-8 engine did not really change, but it now has 311 horsepower instead of 315 horsepower because of revisions in the way that the Society of Automotive Engineers rates the engine. Don't worry. The SAE is not just picking on Volvo; these revisions apply to the ratings of all engines.

Volvo has always been about mostly bigger cars, but it now has the cutest addition to its lineup - the 2008 C30 hatchback - with a rear treatment that is sensational and loved by everyone I met. OK, cute also means small, and I'll agree on that, but the C30 accommodated my hefty bulk easily. Power comes from a 2.5-liter, turbocharged five-cylinder engine (no, I will not call that engine cute) that produces 236 foot-pounds of torque at a healthy 1,500 rpm and 227 horsepower at 5,000 rpm. But even with that power combination, the EPA highway mileage estimate is 28 mpg with the manual six-speed transmission that I drove and 27 mpg for the five-speed automatic.

Convertibles are not unknown in previous Volvo lineups, but the new C70 pushes the envelope with its retractable hardtop design that makes the car as beautiful in the rain as it is in the sun. Unlike other C class Volvos, which included both a coupe and a convertible, this year's C70 comes only as a convertible, but the hardtop design makes it able to fill two roles. The hard top also makes it sturdier on the road, although with Volvo sturdy is the standard mode. The C70 has a T5 designation, which means it has the turbocharged, 2.5-liter, inline, five-cylinder engine, one of the smoothest engines around, in my opinion.

Except for the additional 10 grand, the Volvo V70 R wagon doesn't seem much different from the ordinary V70 family wagon -- until you get into the driver's seat and put the pedal to the metal. It takes great engineering and turbo-charging to pull 300 horsepower from Volvo's 2.5-liter, in-line, five-cylinder engine, but more amazing is that it has 295 foot-pounds of torque from 1,950 rpm through a high end of 5,250 rpm, an incredible range. Even when the engine is idling, it sounds as if it's ready to get the wheels turning quickly, and a comfortable-shifting six-speed manual transmission lets you capture all of that power.

By CHRISTINE DEMPSEY, cdempsey@courant.com and The Hartford Courant, September 5, 2012

A pedestrian is dead and a driver injured after the motorist hit the man on North Broad Street Tuesday night, police said. The accident happened about 8:20 p.m., police said. Officers found a gray Volvo facing north in the northbound lane of the street, otherwise known as the Berlin Turnpike or Route 5. The pedestrian, who police said was 42, was hit in the northbound lane. He suffered massive injuries and was pronounced dead at Hartford Hospital about four hours later, police said.

A 23-year-old city man was fatally stabbed early Sunday morning after stopping a man from beating a woman on Arctic Street. Police received a call reporting a man had been stabbed at 573 Arctic St. at 2 a.m., police said. Upon arrival, officers found Francisco Barbosa of Pembroke Street suffering from stab wounds, police said. Barbosa was transported by ambulance to Bridgeport Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Witnesses told officers that Barbosa had intervened in an assault where a man was beating a woman and slamming her into the hood of a 1990s dark colored Volvo station wagon, police said.

The sentencing of Maurice Francis for the 2008 murder of Tashima Reddick has been postponed to May 24. Francis was scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday, but Judge Julia Dewey rescheduled the sentencing to give an evaluator time to see reports from the state Department of Correction. The reports will give the evaluator a better sense of which prison she should recommend for Francis' incarceration, said his public defender, William O'Connor. A Hartford Superior Court jury found him guilty in February after about six hours of testimony.

Volvo couldn't wait until 2005 to bring out the newest S40 sedan, so the latest is a 2004.5 model, probably one of the smallest Volvos to come to the United States. It boasts Volvo quality through and through, but the passenger compartment just seems a tad confined if you fill every seat with a full-size person. Maybe they are smaller in Stockholm than in Hartford. Front-seat shoulder room is 55.2 inches, but that's at the shoulders. Further down, the room it is tighter than that.

Driving the redesigned Volvo S80 for 2007 is a stately experience; the Swedish flagship sedan offers a comfortable ride, with a firmness you will not get in lesser sedans. This is not the firmness that races around corners at breakneck speed; this is the firmness that tells of a solid, well-built automobile that does not flex and twist as it goes about its daily routines. Even little touches, such as a navigation screen that reduces head and eye movement by popping up from the dash to be easily visible on the same level as the road, and then tucking itself out of sight when it's not needed.